Los Angeles daily herald., 1887-10-16
HISTORIC SHREWS.
Women Who Have Become Fa.
nous and Notorious For
ScO1ding.

Some OF the shrews have had as en-
during round in history as have
some of the beauties, though owing
their fame to very opposite quality.
England and France supply the most
prominent specimens:
Royalty first, however. Mathilda.
empress and claimant against King
Stephen for the crown Of Enland, has
left fair claim to masterful temper
ament. Queen Elizabeth. great an
she was, exhibits herself in some of
her letters and actions, as when
she boxed Essex's ears, as a right
royal shrew. So was Catherine de Me-
dici. So, ,emphatically, was Christina, of
Sweden, who caused her Chamber
lain, Monaldeschi, in the right of her
prerogatives, to be strangled in pal
ace of the King of France. So was
Catherine of Russia a shrew, who had
absolute power to back up her shrew-
ishness.
In Henry Wills reign, Lady
Moore, wife of the great and good Sir
Thomas, stands out as very definite
shrew, who ruled her husband and
children alike with much austerity.
But she does not, though she liked
her own way, appear, as far as We
can see, In any way to come up to
Lady Coke, in JONES rs reign. This
lady drove her husband, the terrible
Chief Justice (of whom james himself
said, "Nay, mon; if Coke sends for
me, l must go") nearly frantic. The
subject was their daughters mar
riage. Lady Coke was furious, inde-
fatigable, resolute and most accom-
plished scold.
Now for French one little known
to English readers in general. She
was Nine. de Vervins, who in the
seventeenth century, was fine speci-
men of the species. She told her ser
wants to kill those OF lady whom her
lackeys insulted for venturing to de-
fend their mistress. She bullied her
husband necessarily, and on one
occasion in a quarrel used a riding
whip as an argument. She habitu-
ally beat her servants violently. She
scolded her acqaintances for the least
difference of opinion, unfavorable
criticism or most minute slight offered
to her or fancied by her, and plotted
their assassination if they opposed
/ ner imperious and arbitrary nature.
Another woman of the same type,
who loved to play the ''shrew" in
public, and especially at balls and
parties, was Nine. d'Orgeval. She
lived in the same time as Nine. DIVER
vius. Nine. d'Orgeval gave great en-
tertainments, but she and her daugh-
ter, according to the French memoirs,
chiefly loved doing insolent things in
a polite manner. On all occasions
Nine. d'Orgeval's temper was furious
if any lady danced better or oftener
than her daughter. In one instance
of this she told the lady who offended
her that if she continued dancing she
would stop the ball. She bullied her
guests with vigor, and demanded her
own way in everything.
Returning to England, our gallery
of portraits must not omit Sarah, first
duchess of Marlborough, whose violent
temper made her generally dreaded.
She had the good quality of loving
her husband, the famous general, and
thinking him the foremost of men.
But to every one else she could be a
shrew on occasion. Poor Queen Anne
was afraid OF her. She bullied her as
if she was a nobody. And in the MS
room of the British Museum much
contemporary light is thrown on this
subject by a remarkable letter to be
seen there, written at the time, and
describing an order sent to the Duke
and Duchess to give up their insignia
of office without notice, and telling the
latter that she was not to come to the
Queen, who, no doubt, was afraid Of
her. This was at the time when her
enemies intrigues (led by her cousin,
Miss Masham, whom she had placed
at court in her interest) were success
full.